ACCIDENT DOSIMETRY USING ENVIRONMENTAL MATERIALS - THE ROLE OF THERMOLUMINESCENCE

Accident dosimetry using environmental materials which were present and exposed to gamma radiation during and following an accident would appear to be an attractive adjunct to more traditional dosimetric methods. The primary attraction stems from the promise of obtaining measurements of dose in exposed materials at specific locations in an accident zone; measurements which are independent of considerations of weathering, fractionation, decay, time of arrival of nuclides, etc. Thermoluminescence techniques have been applied to environmental materials for dosimetry of radiation incidents since the early 1960s. This paper examines the success of those efforts, the evolution of the techniques and the strengths and weaknesses of the current methodology.